Innova EVO and switching cat's food/variety

I have two girls. 1 1/2 & 2. They've always eaten Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul dry food. It's getting harder and harder to find around here, so I stopped into a "Healthy" pet food store. The fellow seems to carry all premium brands. Unfortunately, he's phasing out the Chicken Soup. We talked for a while about the Evo as well as other innova products. He gave me some samples to bring home for the girls (including wellness). I've read some things about EVO, which concern me...which is the increased drinking of water.

Two questions.

One if you like EVO, why. If not, why not.

Two. I've always read that you should change a cat's food slowly, yet now I'm seeing that some people offer different varieties (as long as they're within the same brand) every day. What is everyone's opinion on that? Thanks.

I'm no expert but here goes. If you change brands (not flavours) you should do it gradually. Having said that, it also depends on your cat. We've changed Bijou and Mika abruptly with no problems. I started a few months ago to feed wet and they had stinky poo for a couple weeks but settled down nicely.

We also got a PetMate for water and both cats seem to be drinking much more. Mika loves drinking it at the top where it starts to flow down.

I tried different brands when I started feeding wet and Merricks is the only one they liked, so Merricks is what they get.

We switched to Evo and to be honest, they don't drink much more water than they did with any other dry food before it (in fact we changed from Chicken Soup and they drank more water with that and had stinkier poops as well).

I haven't had many problems changing 'flavours' of foods with them but changing foods takes a while as Bumper and Scully both have sensitive tummies... Boomer would happily eat garbage and Magnum turns his nose up at new foods for a few days/weeks so we need some of the old stuff out for him.

On your first question, personally I do like Evo as all 4 of mine eat it with no problems so I don't have to put them in separate rooms to eat and have done well dieting on it.

Do it gradually and watch for diarrea and excessive thirst ... Evo works for about 50% of cats ... If you can I would just go to canned ( EVO canned works well ) or to raw ..... I use dry food as a staple for only one and she is starting to eat canned and raw ..

Thanks, everyone for the advice.

Of course, though, I have another question. I know some of you only feed canned and some only feed a raw. If you HAD to choose a kibble, what brand would you choose?

Innova Regular (not the evo). Wellness. Eagle Pack. Natural Balance Nutro Felidae.

My kibble eater gets Nutro natural choice ... it is a good solid food... I prefer Califonia Natural it is made by Natura like Innova .... I like simple foods without alot of fu fu./... Wellness contains garlic( I wont feed) Natural Balence makes a great allergy food .... Felidea is also good though none of my animals like the dry ... Eagle Pack is the only food multiple vets have said no to ( pm me for details..)

I free feed a 50/50 mixture of Innova EVO & Life's Abundance & they've all been doing great on this mix... no more loose poop for Grady.

In the morning, they also share a can of wet food, I rotate EVO, California Natural & Innova.

I haven't had any problems switching brands or flavors. I guess they have hearty tummies. I actually think giving them a variety helps protect against stomach upsets .. but I'm definitely no expert.. I know if I only eat one food one flavor, then I switch to something else, I would probably get a tummy ache

I feed canned and dry. I got a sample pack of the Evo and neither one would touch it. I've been giving them Authority from Petsmart, because it's the easiest store to get to and seemed the best option from there. They also liked the little sample of California Natural. I won't feed them Wellness because of the garlic.

You can get Chicken Soup online if you're interested in staying with that brand. http://www.petfooddirect.com/store/is one place to get it. I have ordered from them before, thought the delivery was a bit slow, but I think you have the option to have them ship the same order at whatever frequency you want.

Nakita absolutely *loved* EVO but EVO didn't love Nakita. She ate it for 3 months and she literally dried up. She still had wet food each day and was drinking water but I guess it was too rich for her. This is the first time she had a reaction to a dry food.

Right now I have switched out her dry food to another brand. She currently eats approximately 70% wet food and 30% dry. But it was a real struggle to get her off the EVO since she was literally addicted to this food!

Some digestive systems need a slower introduction to new food while other cats are fine with changes. It is usually recommended that you introduce the new food over a 7 day period.

Thanks everyone for your comments. I picked up some Merrick's wet, but there's one ingredient in there that I'm not 100% sure of — Ethylenediamine Dihydriodide — so I'll have to do some research on that.

I think all the carbs in the chicken soup are making Zora even fatter...even though she and Rogue are on the Lite. I'm a little concerned about the EVO dry, though. So I doubt I'll be switching them to that.

I'm reading labels avoiding things with garlic...even wet foods...but I have yet to find a kibble (which Rogue adores). I have a sample of the regular innova. Maybe I'll mix that in with their Chicken Soup and see if they like that. I'm worried about the fat count, though.

Originally Posted by mssandora

Thanks everyone for your comments. I picked up some Merrick's wet, but there's one ingredient in there that I'm not 100% sure of — Ethylenediamine Dihydriodide — so I'll have to do some research on that.

I think all the carbs in the chicken soup are making Zora even fatter...even though she and Rogue are on the Lite. I'm a little concerned about the EVO dry, though. So I doubt I'll be switching them to that.

I'm reading labels avoiding things with garlic...even wet foods...but I have yet to find a kibble (which Rogue adores). I have a sample of the regular innova. Maybe I'll mix that in with their Chicken Soup and see if they like that. I'm worried about the fat count, though.

Click to expand...

that ingrediant is iodine,,,, garlic is a popular ingrediant ...